25-10-2013, 09:12 AM
Quote:If it simply meant protecting citizens from bombs on buses and trains, of course, most people would sign up for that. But as the Snowden leaks have moved from capability to content, it's been driven home that much of what NSA and GCHQ (virtually one organisation) are up to has nothing to do with terrorism or security at all, but, as might be expected, the exercise of naked state power to gain political and economic advantage.
In the past few days the French have discovered (courtesy of Le Monde) that the NSA harvested 70m digital communications in France in one month, with special focus on French-American telecoms firm Alcatel-Lucent, while the Mexicans have learned (via Der Spiegel) that their president's emails were hacked into by US intelligence to "plan international investments" and strengthen US diplomatic leverage.
Eavesdropping for commercial advantage is not new, of course, but probably the extent of it is.
What do the US and UK do with the commercially sensitive data they acquire? Almost certainly they pass it freely on to domestic businesses who can make use of it in decision taking and price rigging.
This, of course, means that agencies like NSA and GCHQ operate a semi-private intelligence gathering role for the benefit of business enterprises, but that are exclusively funded by the taxpayer.
This opens up a whole heap of questions about who benefits and who pays...
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14